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SALT LAKE CITY -- We've all heard the jokes about how it always seems to rain or snow during the General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But behind every joke is a little bit of truth.
For the first day of General Conference, the weather should be nice. But KSL Meteorologist Dan Pope says on Sunday, "It's going to rain and snow, and it's going to be a mess." (Get the complete forecast here.)
Of course.
Out of every conference weekend in April for which records were kept, Pope says it has either rained or snowed on one of the two days 64 percent of the time. We've had precipitation 53 percent of the time over conference weekend for both April and October.
Pope says he's heard from some visitors from out of state that get annoyed by this. But what about the people who live here?
One man said, "I served a mission in Seattle, so I have no complaints."
Another said, "I enjoy it because it brings the flowers out."
One woman told me, "It's just a tradition. What would conference be without a little rain or snow?"
They were awfully chipper about the wet weather. Pope said, "If the [LDS] Church wanted to find a time when they wouldn't get rained on, they'd want to move conference to late June or early July."
Pope said that is the driest time of the year, and there would only be a 3 percent chance of precipitation.
Of course, if the church moved one session to June, that means the other session would have to be moved to January, and that would feel downright miserable for people waiting outside the Conference Center.
E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com
